Review: Antidote to Venom by Freeman Wills Crofts

Antidote to Venom [1938] – ★★★★

“…of the Good in you I can speak, but not of the Evil. For what is Evil but not Good tortured by its own hunger and thirst? When Good is hungry, it seeks food, even in dark caves, and when it thirsts, it drinks even of dead waters” (The Prophet, Kahlil Gibran).

There are few murder-mysteries out there that have truly unique settings, and since this Golden Age detective mystery is set in a zoo, it certainly appeals just on the basis of its intriguing set-up. Irish author Freeman Wills Crofts (1879-1957)’s story is about Birmington Zoo Director George Surridge, whose life starts to slowly unravel right under his nose: he and his wife grow increasingly indifferent towards each other, he has recently forced to fire one of his zoo guards for misconduct, and now he has to deal with the most astonishing mystery: the disappearance of a poisonous snake from his zoo. That’s not all: following the snake’s disappearance, a man is found dead – presumably, from that snake’s bite. But, nothing is as it seems. Inspector Joseph French starts investigating and comes up with the most ingenious solution that would explain a whole sequence of odd events in George Surridge’s life. Antidote to Venom is one thrilling mystery read from one of the most esteemed Golden Age crime authors.

At its heart, Antidote to Venom is about a full-scale dive into a character, a character that appears ordinary at first glance, but whose actions become anything but. That character is George Surridge and we step into his shoes. Surridge wishes well for his wife Clarissa, but he also meets another woman he falls in love with, and wants to build his future with her. Clarissa has no place. Surridge likes his rich, elderly aunt, but he also wants to lay his hands on his inheritance from her as soon as possible. Thus, his aunt Lucy apparently has no place (in Surridge’s perfect world). Surridge is a dutiful zoo director that genuinely cares for his employees and animals, but he also has a gambling habit to take care of – all understandable – to an extent? George Surridge is a man pressured, a man in despair pressed against the wall. It is here that Freeman Wills Crofts shines, showing how easily the unthinkable can turn into something very much “thinkable” and doable. Not to give any spoilers away, it is only safe to say that the author in his one character (who is not a detective)-centred approach appears ahead of his time, way predating Bret Easton Ellis’s American Psycho – (though not in the first-person narration, of course).

There are unexpected turns in this book, with the narrative seemingly leading the reader into one direction, only for them to end up in another, and, for once, we have a very clever murderer and an ingenious crime solution. That solution would have seemed too-far-fetched, but Freeman Wills Crofts’s fluid writing engages us in every sentence and paragraph, helping us to suspend our disbelief. The same helps us to overlook some of the plot’s melodrama and familiar crime motives. “Two people can keep a secret if one of them is dead”, the saying goes, and we certainly get that too in this plot. In Freeman Wills Crofts’s story, the evil has never felt so close to home as the author also makes a point that you must never underestimate a truly desperate man.

🐍 Antidote to Venom is not so much a whodunit as howdunit story, but it is still a detective story that holds its own in the genre. It is one with a too perfect a crime that has enough intrigues, red herrings and a bunch of poisonous snakes to satisfy any curious mystery lover who will undoubtedly admire its highly observant detective – Inspector French.

🩸 See also my reviews of other British Library Crime Classics: The Poisoned Chocolates Case, Miraculous Mysteries and Silent Nights: Christmas Mysteries.